Psalms 139 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Yahweh, you have searched through every part of me and you know me completely.

You know when I sit down and when I stand up. You understand what I'm thinking before the thought is even fully formed.

You trace my journeys and my rest, and every path I take is familiar to you.

Before a word even reaches my tongue, you already know it completely, Yahweh.

You surround me -- behind and ahead -- and your hand rests gently on me.

This kind of knowledge is too extraordinary for me, too high -- I can't begin to grasp it.

Where could I go to escape your Breath? Where could I run to hide from your presence?

If I climb to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths of death, you are there too.

If I ride the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest edge of the sea,

even there your hand would guide me, your strong hand would hold me steady.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will swallow me, and the light around me will turn to night,"

even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day -- darkness and light are the same to you.

You are the one who formed my innermost being. You wove me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made -- your works are extraordinary, and I know this deep in my bones.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was being shaped in the hidden place, woven with care in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw me when I was still unformed. Every one of my days was written in your book before a single one of them had begun.

How precious your thoughts are to me, God. How vast the sum of them!

If I tried to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.

If only you would destroy the wicked, God! Get away from me, you violent ones!

They speak of you with evil intent; your enemies misuse your name.

Yahweh, don't I despise those who hate you? Don't I loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with a thorough hatred; I count them as my own enemies.

Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any destructive way in me, and lead me in the way that lasts forever.